I managed to get tickets to see Marie Antoinette Style on the same day as the Cartier exhibition, so after visiting that exhibition and having a cup of tea and a very nice slice of cake in the cafe I headed into my second event of the day. On display were a surprising amount of Marie Antoinette’s belongings as well as items contemporary to her life and items that were inspired by her life and fashion choices centuries after her execution.
When I first saw the Cartier exhibition advertised I wasn’t sure I would be able to fit it in around family commitments but thankfully by around June things had opened up and I was able to book a ticket to the exhibition – for October. The exhibition is now sold out but it’s proven so popular that they are releasing extra tickets for some evenings until it closes on 16 November, so it’s still worth checking their website every so often. Members of the V&A of course can visit for free without pre-booking needed.
The Benaki Museum started as the private collection of Antonis Benakis, a wealthy cotton merchant, and is housed in the family’s original neoclassical home. Antonis and his three sisters donated it to Greece in 1930. The museum contains thousands of exhibits tracing Greek culture from the prehistoric to the modern age.
I’d spotted a sign for the Ilias Lalaounis Jewellery Museum on my way from the Acropolis down to the Acropolis Museum and decided it was just the kind of place I’d like to visit that afternoon to keep out of the sun. I knew absolutely nothing about the museum and had never heard of Ilias Lalaounis but I found the museum to be excellent with many beautiful items on display.
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has one of the best collections of jewellery in the world and back in January I had some time on my hands so I popped into the V&A as I nearly always do when nearby and headed up to the Jewellery Section. I hadn’t been there for ages and so hadn’t seen the new layout which is much better than the slightly cramped set-up I remembered from previous visits.
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Edinburgh’s National Museum of Scotland was the one museum that I definitely wanted to make sure we visited on our trip.
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The Portland Collection is part of the Harley Gallery in Welbeck, a permanent exhibit of art and other items such as furniture and jewellery that the Dukes of Portland and their families have collected for centuries. It’s housed in a building that used to be where horses were trained by the Portlands.
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The Museum of Cultural History in Oslo consists of early Norwegian artefacts, classical antiquities from ancient Egypt and other areas of Africa, as well as Asia. It opened in 1904 and is in a rather lovely Art Deco building.
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